Mortals of Greek Mythology
Pandora Read the beggining of this myth with Prometheus! Pandora was the first woman ever created. Hephaestus carved her out of marble at the order of Zeus as a punishment for all mankind. The West Wind, Zephyrus, blew life into her. Before Hermes took Pandora down to earth, each god gave Pandora a gift (This was how she got her name. "pan" meaning "all, and "Dora" Meaning "gift." So Pandora was "All Gifts." --HH). Aphrodite gave her beauty, Apollo gave her a nice voice, Hestia gave her good housekeeping skills, and so on. But the gift Zeus gave to her was curious. Immense curious. So Hermes took Pandora down to earth and married the Titan Epimetheus, also at the order of Zeus. Zeus had given them a box that could never be open for their wedding gift. Prometheus had warned his brother to never accept a gift from Zeus, but Epimetheus forgot his advice (again). Together they lived happily, but she was itching to know what was in the box. Epimetheus, on his part, did keep Pandora from opening it for several years. But one day he had to go on a trip and left Pandora all alone. She decided that just taking a peek inside the jar would not hurt, so she did. Boy, was she wrong. All the evils of the world flew out of the box, including jealousy, rage, misery, laziness, lust, vanity, and more. So mankind was forever punished. But, there was one good thing put in the box. Hope. Mankind will always have hope. You tell me if there is a happily ever after. Arachne Arachne was a mortal who bragged that she was a better weaver than Athena herself. So Athena, disguised as an old woman, went to Arachne's house and asked if she was a better weaver then Athena. Arachne said and so Athena revealed herself to Arachne and challenged her. Ariadne and Athena weaved and weaved till they were done with their tapestries. Arachne's was of all of Zeus' loves and Athena was of all 12 Gods on there thrones together. The Judges agreed that Athena's was better then Arachne's. So Athena turned Arachne into a spider so she could forever weave. Psyche Psyche was a mortal princess and the youngest of three daughters born to an unidentified king. She was the most beautiful person to have ever lived. So beautiful that mortals began to worship her instead of Aphrodite. Finding out that her temples were being abandoned for the worship of a mere mortal girl left Aphrodite slightly miffed. Over slightly. Very miffed. Very upset. Angry. Aphrodite ordered her son, Eros, to shoot an arrow into Psyche's heart and make her fall in love with the ugliest man on the planet. Eros hunted down the absolute ugliest man on the planet and lugged him to Psyche's dad's palace. Unfortunately for Aphrodite, but fortunately for Psyche, when Eros saw Psyche for the first time, he fell head-over-heels in love with her. Eros then hatched a plan. He managed to get the king to think that he needed to leave Psyche up on a deserted mountain top where she would be married to a dragon. If the king did not oblige, the dragon would destroy his city. So everyone left Psyche on the mountain, mourning the whole way down. Eros then sent Zephyrus, the West Wind, to carry Psyche to his palace. There, Psyche could wander as she wished through the whole palace, but she was never ever allowed to see her host, which was Eros, but she didn't know that. Every night Eros would return home and talk with Psyche in the dark or behind a curtain. Psyche was happy at the palace but longed for some company she could see and talk to. All of the servants in the palace were invisible nymphs who couldn't talk because they offended Zeus. Psyche begged Eros to let her sisters visit. Eros was against it, but he eventually agreed. So Zephyrus brought Psyche's two older sisters down and were immediately struck with jealousy for everything Psyche had, most of which they didn't. So the two sisters planted seeds of doubt into their little sister, convincing her that her captor was a terrible dragon that would eat her. Psyche argued that he didn't feel like a dragon, or sound like a dragon, but he agreed to look upon the face of her captor with a knife, so that if it was a dragon she could kill it. Psyche held an oil lamp in one hand and a dagger in the other. When she saw that she was loved by Eros, she was so surprised that she accidentally spilled some hot oil on him. Of course, Eros woke up and got upset that she had broken her promise not to try and look at him. He told her she would never see him again and flew away. Psyche was heartbroken and couldn't believe that she had been so foolish. She pointlessly wandered around, searching for Eros. Finally, somebody gave her some good advice: plead with Aphrodite and become a seraent to her. While Psyche had been dispairing, Eros had been locked up by his mother. She was telling everyone he had a bad oil burn, but she was really keeping him away from Psyche. When Psyche begged Aphrodite to become her servant, Aphrodite agreed after some persuasion. Immediately Aphrodite spilled different types of grain all over the floor and commanded Psyche to sort them all by sunset. Aphrodite left Psyche to do her work, but Psyche knew she could never sort all of the grains by sunset. She began to cry. But a colony of ants heard her cry and sorted all the grain for her, completely catching Aphrodite off guard when she returned after dark. Psyche's next task was to get the golden wool of some man-eating sheep. But, she learned from a friend to wait until the sheep went into the shade, and then pick the wool off of the brambles and weeds in the field they had been eating. Aphrodite sent Psyche all over the planet on dangerous missions that met the goddess's whims. Eventually, Aphrodite sent her on her last quest. Psyche was to go down to the Underworld and ask Persephone for some of her beauty, apparently, Aphrodite had lost some of hers caring for Eros with his minor oil burn. So Psyche traveled down to the depths of the Underworld and retrieved the beauty. Now, either Aphrodite and Persephone were plotting against Psyche or Persephone was trying to get back at Aphrodite(they were enemies), but Persephone didn't put any of her beauty in the box. Instead, there was some gas or powder that caused the mortal Psyche to faint and almost die. Luckily, Eros had escaped from his mom and saw Psyche pretty much dying. He realized how much he loved her and came and rescued her. Aphrodite was not exactly pleased with the outcome, but Eros asked Zeus to make Psyche immortal, and to marry the couple. Zeus agreed, and Pyche became immortal and married her true love. Eventually Aphrodite warmed up to Psyche. Not long after Eros and Psyche were married, Psyche gave birth to a baby girl named Hedone, or Bliss. Eros' name means love, and Psyche's name means soul. And when love and soul became eternally bonded, they produced bliss. Guess What? They lived happily ever after. Find out more about the gods mentioned in this article here. Adonis Be sure to read the beginning of this under Persephone's section! Adonis and Aphrodite were dating. Adonis was seriously the hottest guy ever. Way better than Ares. Whom Aphrodite happened to ditch for a mortal. Ares was not exactly happy with this arrangement, due to the fact that he still liked Aphrodite, and she was over him. Ares was extremely jealous and wanted Aphrodite to focus on him again. So one day while Adonis went out hunting, Ares decided to finish him off once and for all. he turned himself into a wild boar and gored Adonis. Adonis cried out and Aphrodite came to him quickly, but she was too late. Adonis died in her arms. Ares the pig ran away. Eventually Ares and Aphrodite got together again. Andromeda Andromeda was the daughter of King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia. Andromeda bragged that she was more beautiful than all the Oceanids put together. All the Oceanids were very unhappy and complained to Poseidon. King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia talked to an oral and the oral said they must sacrifice their only daughter, so they chained her to a rock near the water. Poseidon punished her by setting a sea monster to kill her. Perseus saved her with the head of Medusa. Deculion and Phyrra Deculion was a son of Prometheus. His wife was Phyrra